New A2 Media Studies Blog

This is the address for my A2 media blog- http://sadlerproductions.blogspot.co.uk/

New blog for Nicole!

This is the address to my new A2 blog ~ http://nicole215media.blogspot.co.uk/

Aidan Standish new blog address

http://aidanstandisha2.blogspot.co.uk/

Iconic Music Videos - Madonna ~ Like a Prayer

Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' (released March 21st 1989) is an iconic music video not only because of her huge fame and popularity, but because it demonstrates a political message. It also deals with religion, using it to make the audience empathise with the narrative, although it could also be seen as offensive and controversial.

The video depicts Madonna running away from police sirens until she reaches a remote chapel, where she seeks refuge. In here, as she begins to pray, we see that all the statues and images depict a black jesus christ. Even though this song was released in the late 80's, when the extremes of racism from the 50's are gone, there still remains more subtle racism in society, primarily coming form the elder generation. This image is very controversial as not only is there still unfair racial discrimination present at the time, but it has always been said that Jesus Christ was white. Challenging the identity of such an important and respected religious figure is incredibly risky, but clearly a risk the director felt necessary in order to make the audience pay close attention to the video. Another point to note is when Madonna kisses the statue of jesus' feet. She pays almost no attention to the colour of his skin, and continues to pray to him just as the saviour she has always known, treating him no differently - symbolic of her views on racism.

The video also has another narrative, which shows Madonna before she has run to the chapel, set in a town.
As she walks from her apartment, she witnesses several white men attempting to rape a woman and a black man who runs in to save her. As the white men run away, the black man is left at the scene as police arrive, who instantly arrest him without any question, assumingly because he is black. This again relates back to the anti-racism message of the video and shows the flipside of assumptions created by bias white americans.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood-Relax, music video analysis

Iconic as it was banned by BBC due to sexual references

Uses laser lights and smoke perhaps to show how it is edgy and give a 'live' feeling, and reference to laser beam line

Many mid shots of singer-he is the most important

Very little fixed camera shots to keep it moving

Fast editing and often to the beat

Lots of instrument shots to show importance

Question 5

We used a variety of methods to attract our target audience, such as the choice of characters, plot and sound track.

Characters
All of our characters were young and appeared to be relatively smart. This was helpful in reaching our young, art house audience as we feel that they will identify with the characters. In particular, we think that our audience will find the mentality of the female killer quite interesting.

Lighting
We chose a film noir lighting style which we believe will appeal to our higher educated art house audience through the fact that it is unique and gives an insight in to the types of characters. It adds a sense of mystery which our target audience will like. As well as this, it makes the film much more interesting for the audience as a pose to being simple, high key, ambient lighting.

Sound
The sound track we used was quite urban and enigmatic. This should appeal to our young audience as they like to listen to that sort of music. The sound track should make them want to watch the film as it is quite 'inviting' but is slightly discordant at the same time. This means our seems interesting to the audience.

Plot
The whole plot was designed with our target audience in mind. It is enigmatic and requires the audience to do a lot of thinking. We expect that a young, media savvy audience should be able to do this. They will also enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out if the killing really happened and if so, why it happened. This is enhanced by the 'bedroom' scene at the beginning. The audience will want to find out  why she in particular pulled the trigger.

Distribution
We suggested that distributing our film via social networking sites and Youtube would be a good idea. This is because the audience we aim at will be quite proficient in the use of this technology and so the film would be easily accessible to them. Pull marketing could also be used in the sense that people could share a link to the film.

To conclude
Overall, our film aims to reach the target audience of somebody who is young, achieving and media savvy by being creative in the sense of the plot and technical elements such as lighting. As well as this, the distribution method should appeal to the target audience.

Question 1

Question 1 from Nicole Manby

Evaluation-Question 7

Evaluation - Question 4

This is a Glog I made in response to question 4 of our coursework evaluation. It was made on www.glogster.com and should you find it difficult to view anything on this embedded version, here is the link to the original on glogster.com.

Update 23/01/12

Today we worked some more on our evaluations. I have finished question 6, Hazel finished number 2, me and Hazel did question 3 whilst Nicole worked on question 4. We now have 3 more questions to do as a group and Nicole needs to finish question 4. All in all, a good lesson.

Evaluation Question 3

Question 2

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Evaluation Question 6

Past student evaluation

Although this is only the answer to one of the questions set in an evaluation, i feel he covers everything in a very collected, organised manor. He systematically goes through the technologies using screen grabs to relate to what he is saying as evidence.

Strengths of this video:

• He has clearly thought about what he is going to say before recording the video
• he includes screen grabs to back up what he's saying in time with when he's saying it
• introduces the question at the very beginning, so makes it clear what he's going to talk about
• explains all the technologies he used, how he used them and gives a little background info so anyone can understand what he's talking about
• Talks to the camera as if talking straight to the examiner

Weaknesses of this video:

• sometimes is not as concise as he probably could be
• could have spoken about technologies he tried but didn't use and why
• could have spoken about how technologies have changed over the years and how the current ones are better/worse

Update-17/01/13

Today was quite productive. We are still preparing our conclusions. It has been agreed that I will record a podcast for question 6, Nicole will take charge of question 4 and Hazel will work on number 7. The rest will probably be worked on as a group.

I did however begin to look at various distributors today. I took some screenshots of various websites, including social networking sites. These are of course an option for distribution.

Lesson Update!

Today I looked at examples of how to answer question 2 and the technologies I could use for question! I looked at one example of question 2 that used images and footage from films that had influenced their choice of characters and the social groups they present. So I decided to look at the films we had looked at and look at how they influenced our main character. I also looked at the social group we were trying to present in our thriller, so I googled the social group to get images of them and compared them to our main character!

Evaluation of Evaluation 3

http://lukevangelderrc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/thriller-evaluation-part-1.html

Good Points:
This evaluation clearly used lots of technology and a lot of effort was put into making it. I particularly liked the use of a Prezi for the first post. It makes people want to read on. The fact that the evaluation is spread across different blog posts makes it easier to digest as you don't end up reading everything at once. It seems that clear knowledge has been demonstrated and that the evaluation goes into some depth.

Bad points:
Whilst the use of the Prezi was great, I did find it to be a little cluttered. As well as this, some of the text analysis was badly written and sometimes difficult to understand. That didn't really affect the overall quality however.

Conclusion:
From this evaluation, the fact that lot's of technology needs to be used has been reinforced. It also shows me that it should not be cluttered. As well as this, I think that spreading the evaluation across separate blog posts may be a good idea. Overall, this is a very good evaluation.

Past Student Evaluation

I really like how all the questions are in one place, making it easier and quicker to simply look through at all the questions. I also like how he has examples for both question, usually next to each other, making it easy to compare. However he doesn't seem very confident or prepared as he keeps saying 'erm'. There is also not a lot of technology used in the evaluation and takes a long time to get through each question, making it very boring to watch and listen to.

Evaluation of Evaluation 2

Evaluation of a Past Evaluation

Good Points:
This evaluation is presented in a clear and easy to understand way. It is very in depth and interesting to read. The use of pictures and screen shots helps to explain the text and so is definitely a useful feature. It is also evident that the questions have been answered and that the writer hasn't gone astray from them.

Bad points:
I found it a little bit boring due to the fact that there is little use of technology. Everything is in one Powerpoint   presentation. There is lot's of text which makes it seem long and almost a chore to read. As well as this, the Powerpoint background is awful and looks unprofessional.

Conclusion:
On the whole, this is an extremely good evaluation! Clearly, a lot of hard work went into making it. I have learn't that the answers for our evaluation will need to be in depth and critical of our work. It will also be good to use images and screen grabs. The most important thing that this shows is that without use of different technology, even the best evaluations can be a little bit boring.

Past Student Evaluation

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